How To Avoid Making Inclusivity A Simple Buzzword For Your Brand

Odds are, if you’re in any way interested in sustainability, you have a soft spot for social justice measures that help people come other. Of course, how these practices are put in place can be hotly debated and often the white-hot fulcrum of our cultural and political disagreements in 2024, but the truth is that being as open to new people as you can is important, provided you do so with your rationale intact.

For this reason, companies that market themselves on sustainability (and we’re certain you’re quite justified in doing so), can sometimes find themselves falling into marketing “everything that’s good.” This might involve talking about diversity (great) or social responsibility (cool).

But it also means using a lot of buzzwords. You likely know what they are already. The truth is, a practice that isn’t marketed but internally structured i worth one thousand buzzwords that are half-delivered on. In some cases, customers can quite reasonably roll their eyes when they hear this marketing spiel because often they know it’s just talk.

So, how can you avoid that happening? In this post, we’ll discuss that and more.

Attach Inclusivity To Goals

Of course, inclusivity by itself is somewhat detached. What are you including people in? Not everything, after all. It’s not like you have an “inclusive approach” towards who has access to your customer’s personal and financial data.

So, attaching it to specific goals is generally good. Maybe you’re trying to make a playground more inclusive by offering different accessibility measures here - https://www.generalrecreationinc.com/inclusive-playground-equipment/ -  and that can help raise your school’s acceptance of differently-abled children. If you’re running a for-profit, you might work with suppliers who pay fair wages for supplied labor abroad, support minority-owned businesses, or ensure your products are accessible to everyone, regardless of physical ability, with capable packaging and tutorials. 

As you can see, this helps you avoid solely paying lip service to the idea of inclusivity, but with little follow-up.

Be Specific About How YOU Define Inclusivity

Now, the term “inclusivity” can mean a lot of things, and it’s often used in such a broad way that it loses its meaning. To avoid this, it’s wise to be specific about what inclusivity means to your brand. Don’t necessarily swipe this from someone else, consider what it means to you.

Does it mean creating products that cater to a wide range of skin tones? Does it mean ensuring that your marketing materials feature diverse voices and faces thanks to the nature of your product? Or perhaps it means curating a workplace where everyone feels valued so you can enhance your levels of staff satisfaction? Maybe you just remove names and ethnicity information from any applicant resumes that are later reviewed so you have zero bias involved in hiring. If you make it clear, people see exactly how you think about inclusivity for the better.

Check Your Competition’s Approach

Businesses consider their competitive approach in almost all fields, so why not this one? At the very least, you can learn what NOT to do. It’s always a good idea to see what others in your industry are doing because it gives you a benchmark for what’s expected. However, this isn’t about going “inclusive” for “inclusive,” but rather considering if others in your space market that at all.

Maybe your industry is so diverse now that you don’t really need to make it a huge marketing point. Perhaps others might think “wait, you weren’t doing that?” For example, the hospitality industry is known to be relatively diverse. In fact, this is so true that restaurants might reverse course and show just how authentic their cuisine is because they chefs come from that country and were raised in that culture. Sometimes, relevance and cultural matching is actually a good thing. If you check your competition, you can see exactly how.

Don’t Tokenize

One of the biggest issues lls in promoting inclusivity is tokenism—making a superficial effort to appear inclusive without putting in the real work. This often happens when brands feature a token person of color, someone with a disability, or a member of the LGBTQ+ community in their marketing materials, but don’t follow through by actually hiring them.

However, there’s another issue - hiring someone solely because of their identity is a bad idea entirely. That’s why it’s good to strive for inclusivity but never to make it a distinct, direct acquisition choice. This means removing bias instead of pursuing it in “the right direction,” that way, you can avoid struggles and harm.

With this advice, you’ll be sure to make inclusivity a real initiative, not just a buzzword.